Tiga, the national trade association that represents games developers in the UK and in Europe, has criticised Chancellor Alistair Darling's Budget for “once again” failing to support the game industry strongly enough.

Specifically, Tiga CEO Richard Wilson said that he was disappointed by the decision not to introduce a tax break for games production.

“This Budget conspicuously fails to back one of the principal creative industries of the future – games development. It is disappointing that while Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, plans to spend £671 billion over the coming financial year, including £300 million on the vehicle scrappage scheme, he could not find the £150 million over five years to invest in the tax break for games production,” he said.

“The Government has missed a trick. Video games are a growing sector and the UK games development sector is still world beating. The Government should have used today’s Budget to reinforce success and introduced a tax break for games production. It is disappointing that it failed to do so.”

Wilson did add that some budgetary measures could help the industry. £50 million of a newly-announced £750 million Strategic Investment Fund will be allocated to the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and a further £10 million will go to UK Trade & Investment (UKT&I) to help exporters. 

“These are good decisions,” he said. “Some UK game developers have already benefited from TSB funding and many have been helped by UKT&I in the past.

“As an accredited trade organisation, Tiga can work with UKTI’s Tradeshow Access Programme in supporting UK businesses looking to exhibit at overseas trade shows; we hope that some of this additional money for UKT&I will be made available to help even more games businesses attend overseas trade shows in the future.”